Shoof 2017

About Shoof

Shoof is an annual, youth-focused event that presents opportunities and inspirations in digital visual media. The event brings together the leading success stories from the visual media sector which in turn helps in informing the attendees with the latest trends, insights and ideas shaping social media.

Shoof Thematic Pillars

Shoof has since its first event in 2013, inspired and motivated thousands of youth of Saudi Arabia towards focusing on emerging digital visual media trends and innovations and building their own success stories. The mission of Shoof is to empower the youth through four key thematic pillars.

Media

Empower the youth with the widest access to innovative tools and resources, latest insights and expert guidance to enable creativity, innovation and creation of localized content that inspires the world.

Education

Enhance a knowledge-based society that values lifelong learning. Through universal access of education, build a strong knowledge-based society guided by the values of integrity and pursuit of excellence.

Culture

Focus on broadening the appreciation of heritage and cultural values of the Saudi society, while nurturing a balanced approach toward future developments in technology, content creation and adoption of global trends.

Technology

Introduce the latest technological advancements in wider media as well as visual media for the benefit of the youth of Saudi Arabia. We envision a new generation of content creators who are eager to learn and apply the best practices and innovations and inspire the world with their content.

Key Messages
Shoof 2017

Visual content is certainly the most effective medium of communication in the digital sphere today. Whether it is produced in the form of sparkling images, appealing video, or interesting infographics, visual content is the new king of the digital world.

Moderators

Forum Presenters

Register

Will Scougal

Head of Creative Strategy, Snapchat

Will Scougal is a UK national and the head of creative strategy Snapchat looking after the UK, EMEA and APAC regions. His primary role is helping Snapchat’s key brand partners realize their business objectives on the platform. Prior to Snapchat, Scougal led the Brand Strategy at Twitter for 3 years and prior to that he was a Creative Director within the advertising industry.

Dale Hudson

Professor, NYUAD

Dale Hudson, from the USA, is an Associate Teaching Professor of Film and New Media and Curator of Film and New Media at New York University at Abu Dhabi. Hudson served on juries and selection committees of several festivals, including the Abu Dhabi Film Festival and Imagine Science Film Festival Abu Dhabi. He advises on the NYUAD Library’s special collections of films from Gulf film festivals, and he coordinates films from the Gulf for the MESA (Middle East Studies Association). He is the author of Vampires, Race, and Transnational Hollywoods and co-author of Thinking through Digital Media: Transnational Environments and Locative Places. His essays appear in Afterimage, American Quarterly, Cinema Journal, Screen and elsewhere, including the National Film Preservation Board of the National Film Registry of the US Library of Congress.

Fahad Almoammar

Director, Investment Development (GCAM)

Fahad Almoammar, a Saudi national, was appointed as the Director of Investment Development at the General Commission of Audiovisual Media (GCAM) in 2016. Prior to his role at GCAM, Al Moamar is an active international business development professional and a founding member of various startups in Canada and US in the fields of media and criminal justice studies. Al Moamer holds Advanced Diploma in Business Administration and International Business from Niagra College and a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Entrepreneurial Management from Royal Roads University.

Alia Al Shamsi

Photographer

Alia Al Shamsi is a professional Emirati photographer and is currently working as a full-time photographer at الإمارات اليوم “Al Emarat Al Youm.” Al Shamsi holds a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Photography with a focus on photojournalism from Griffith University, Queensland College of Arts. Al Shamsi also holds a Master’s degree in Photo-image from Durham University, UK. She has won several recognitions and awards including EDAAD Scholarship 2007 and British Council Cultural Leadership International 2010. Al Shamsi has over 6,000 followers on her social media accounts including Instagram and Twitter.

Hattan Nassief

Vice President, Midwam

Hattan, a Saudi national, is the VP of Business Development at Midwam where he plays a major role in deploying AR/VR experiences in the Saudi market. Hattan works closely with professionals from different sectors including education, marketing, sports, entertainment and others to understand business needs in order to formulate customized interactive experiences that meet their objectives. Hattan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Management from the University of Business and Technology in Saudi Arabia and a Master’s degree in Finance from Brock University in Ontario, Canada.

Yaser Alsaggaf

TV and radio presenter

Yaser Alsaggaf is a Saudi national who graduated from one of the universities of the United States with an Electrical Engineering degree. Alsaggaf came back to Saudi Arabia and inaugurated his journey in the field of radio in order to fulfill his passion for presenting. Alsaggaf’s passion turned into a career as many exciting opportunities came his way. Besides his career in media, he is working on his Master’s degree in Engineering Management. Alsaggaf has 102,000 followers on his Intsagram account and 157,000 followers on his Twitter account.

Areej Alkharafi

Business Woman

Areej Alkharafi is an ambitious Kuwaiti businesswoman who works to spread positivity and confidence with her social media content. Alkharafi has been successful since she began utilizing her social media accounts back in 2007 in Kuwait as a new and enticing way to market her merchandise. Alkharafi uses social media to stay in touch with her clients and to get instant feedback. She was recently handed the Arab Social Media Influencers Award by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum as a winner in the Shopping category. She has over 200,000 followers on her social media accounts including Instagram and Twitter.

Ayman Alsharif

Content creator on Snapchat

Ayman Sharif is a young Saudi national who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Media from Umm Al-Qura University and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in the same field. Alsharif took several roles in television including working as a reporter and a broadcaster but this did not fulfill his passion for media. Alsharif used Snapchat as the main platform through which he can present and capture the Holy Mecca and especially the Ka’abah in order to touch the feelings and hearts of Muslims all over the world. Ayman adopted a simple manner of presenting the photos he took through Snapchat in order to be able to communicate with people of all ages and of different educational backgrounds. Alsharif portrays what happens behind the scenes and the hard work and efforts done by the government and the custodians of the two holy mosques to serve the guests of Holy Mecca and there is nothing better than social media platforms to display the essence of the holy places as well as the spiritual and humane incidents that take place every day. Ayman has won the Makkah Award for Excellence handed to him by the governor of Makkah. Al-Sharif has more than 28,100 followers on Twitter and more than 10,900 fans on Instagram.

Mohamed El Daly

Social media expert

Mohamed El Daly is an Egyptian Social Media Director at 1000 Heads (a social media agency based in Dubai). El Daly devises social strategies, oversees content creation and he also develops digital campaigns. Mohamed has accumulated a portfolio of more than 60 brands across the Middle East. El Daly has over 1500 followers on his social media accounts.

Chadi Antonios

Augmented Reality expert

Chadi Antonios is a Lebanese visual media expert with over 15 years of work experience across multi-national and regional companies. His role is to execute on a vision that transforms ideas into impactful storytelling. Currently, Chadi manages the Strategic Partnerships department at Pixelbug, a leading augmented reality technology company. Before joining Pixelbug, Antonios worked at Yahoo, BMW Group in North America and the Middle East markets.

Khaled A. Tash

Marketing Advisor

Khaled is an Expert with over 18 years of experience in marketing and business development, managing global and local brand names. He also led the launch of King Abdullah Economic City and Knowledge Economic City. Khaled is currently consulting and managing marketing projects for various clients in the public, private and NGO sectors. He holds a Bachelor degree from KFUPM, as well as executive diplomas for Harvard Business School and INSEAD. Married and father of Tala and Abdulgader.

Fatima Al-Banawi

Social consultant and artist

Fatima Al-Banawi is a talented Saudi artist who graduated with a Master’s degree in Theological Studies from Harvard University in 2015 after graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Counseling Psychology from Effat University. She later worked at the Family Protection Society in Jeddah. Al-Banawi founded The Other Story Project; a platform that collects personal life stories and reproduces them in art form with an aim for psychosocial development and a reshaping of the public narrative about Saudi society. In 2016, Al-Banawi became internationally recognized for her debut in the award winning submission from Saudi Arabia to the Oscars, the feature film Barakah Meets Barakah. Fatima has over 18 thousand followers on Instagram. @fatimabanawi@fatimabanawi

Hitham

Content creator on YouTube

Hitham is a Saudi YouTuber who believes in social responsibility and community serving. He joined the YouTube community officially in August 2016 in order to give career counseling to the youth. His main aim is to help the Saudi nationals to solve the problems they face in their work life through his YouTube show “Hitham Experiences” or “تجارب هيثم” through which he highlights potential fields and jobs. He chose to encourage the youngsters through social media because of the interest of millennial generation in digital media. Haitham has over 200,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel and over 6 million views. @hithampa@HithampaHitham Channel

Homud AlFayez

TV host and journalist

Homud Al Fayez is a Saudi poet and journalist. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Engineering from King Saud University. He started his media and journalism career with the first Saudi channel as a presenter. During his career, he conducted important interviews with a number of Arab and Saudi ministers. Al Fayez has over 163 thousand Instagram followers and over 330 thousand Twitter followers. @homud_alfayez@HomudAlFayez

Ibrahim Sarhan

Content creator on YouTube

Ibrahim Sarhan is a Saudi content creator and he presents his daily experiences which include traveling to exotic, remote, and rarely visited places. In addition to that, Sarhan shares and narrates his insights and stories that connect people, promote tolerance and coexistence. Through photos, videos, and detailed blogs, Ibrahim is enriching Arabic content on the internet by documenting his candid positive and negative experiences – viewed by large number of people. Sarhan’s channel which was launched in 2011 and successfully garnered over 90,032 YouTube subscribers and over 3 million views. @Sarhaniy@SarhaniySarhaniy

Omar Farooq

Content creator on YouTube

Omar Farooq is a Bahraini photographer and film maker and has chosen to study media in the University of Bahrain. Farooq started his YouTube series “Omar Tries #عمر_يجرب” in 2017, and he successfully garnered over 1,000,000 subscribers and more than 55 million views. Farooq’s ambitious and adventurous personality drives him to spontaneously deliver his ideas to his fans and narrate his experiences in an outspoken manner. @omr94@omr94_Omar Farooq

Neshan Der Haroutiounian

TV host and journalist

Neshan Der Haroutiounian is a Lebanese TV host and journalist who presented a series of primetime shows on numerous TV stations. Neshan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Radio and TV Studies from NDU, a Master’s degree in Electronic Media and Journalism from the NDU, a Master’s degree in the Philosophy of Communication from the EGS in Geneva and a Diploma in Kinesics (Body Language) from the BAFTA, London. Neshan has over 1 million Instagram followers and over 2.9 million Twitter followers. @neshantv@NeshanNeshannTV

Naif Hamdan

Content creator on SnapChat

Naif Hamdan is a Saudi Arabian student who studies Precision Machinery Engineering at Jubail Industrial College. It was a coincidence when he decided to present historical stories and anecdotes on his social media account using colloquial Arabic. He posted his first story on Snapchat and after his videos have gained a lot of attention from his friends and started getting shared, he decided to create his own SnapChat acount in 2015 where he regularly posts historical stories. His main aim is to give attention to the Middle Eastern historical characters and educate the Arabs about them in a simple and entertaining way. Hamdan has garnered 500,000 followers on his SnapChat acount. naiffoh

Karim Jabbari

Calligrapher and light artist

Karim Jabbari is a Tunisian calligrapher who incorporates traditional Arabic calligraphy with contemporary art in order to create artistic pieces on the wall. Jabbari’s passion and determination has pushed him to become innovative and discover new ways to give Arabic calligraphy a new dimension. Jabbari began his artistic journey at the tender age of twelve and his love for the Arabic language intensified as he began to delve deeper into its beautiful letters, words and syllables. Alongside his private ventures, Jabbari endeavors to give back to the communities and has a particular passion for teaching. His project ‘Back to Basics’ focuses on enticing children away from modern day technologies and back to healthy exploits. Jabbari has over 11 thousand followers on his social media accounts that he started using since 2011. @karim_jab@karim_jabmadefromwordsmadefromwords

Ibrahim Abdulrahman

Actor, writer and director

Ibrahim Abdulrahman is a content creator from Saudi Arabia who started his career as an actor, a writer and a director. Because of his funny and spontaneous personality, he has successfully gained a huge fan base on his social media platforms. Abudlrahman started his acting career on TV and on YouTube in 2013 and he holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from King Faisal University and a degree on programming from Institute of Public Administration (IPA), KSA. Abdulrahman has over 370,000 YouTube subscribers and over 78 million views. @ibrahimbasha@ibrahimbashaإبراهيم باشا

Selwan Alawi (Miss Elham)

Arabic poet and writer

Selwan Alawi AKA Miss Elham is a talented young Saudi national who studied medicine and specialized in medical technology from one of the well-renowned Saudi colleges. She graduated in 2008 with a Master’s degree in Global Supply Chain from a university in the USA. Alawi is an Arabic poet and writer but she never anticipated becoming a well-known social media personality as she has always posted her videos on her private Snapchat account with the intention of making her friends laugh. Alawi has garnered over 100,000 Instagram followers and more than 600,000 views on her YouTube channel since she started posting her content to the public back in 2016. @selwan1986@selwan1986Selwan 1986 مس الهام‎

Haifa Beseisso

Content creator on YouTube

Born and raised in Dubai, Haifa Beseisso is a Palestinian girl who decided to leave her job to travel the world and spread tolerance between cultures through her videos and which she started uploading since 2014. Beseisso’s YouTube channel “Fly with Haifa” has over 400,000 subscribers and over 22 million views. She was chosen as the YouTube host of the Nobel Peace Prize concert in December 2016. Haifa considers herself a global citizen who belongs to planet earth, however, she has maintained her character and traditions since she started video blogging. Beseisso is also a filmmaking and media graduate of the American University in Dubai. @flywithhaifa@flywithhaifaFly With Haifa flywithhaifa‎

Saudi Reporters

Content creators on YouTube

Abdulla and Abdulaziz AKA Saudi Reporters are twin brothers from Saudi Arabia. Their weekly show broadcasted via YouTube consists of comedic sketches, challenges, Q&A sessions, food tasting, science experiments, and travel vlogs. The Saudi Reporters started as a YouTube show back in 2010. Their channel has more than 3.2 million subscribers and over 455 million views attracting audiences from all Arab countries. @Saudireporters@SaudireportersThe Saudi Reporters saudireporters